www.bviolympics.com Sailing Lugo kept the pressure on by winning two of the day’s four races to finish with 34 points. Hirst used victories in the last two of three races and also picked up another second to finish with 48 points. While the jockeying for third place position between Anderson, Rathburn heated up, Curerri was making a move with four second places on the day, but came up just short of catching Rathbun and Anderson, who were third and fourth respectively. “Today, our concentration was on defending the position and staying within the top five places,” Lugo said. “We made one bad start but we were always in the pack. I knew if we started good, we’d always have a chance to win.” After a tough day of racing on Saturday that saw him tied with Anderson, Hirst expected another battle on the final day. He said they were getting better speed which helped them out of some situations. He said Anderson’s team made a few mistakes which they didn’t really recover from. “We were able to focus and got up to win a few race and close the gap a little bit with the Puerto Rico team,” Hirst said. “The wind has also dropped a little bit so that made it easier on us.” Anderson said Hirst knew what he had to do to beat them. “He really gassed or set us back at the start of the first three races and it became a little frustrating because we weren’t able to get away at the start,” Anderson explained. “There was a lot of pressure on us, but I don’t think we let it got to us.” Rathbun said it was great competition. “It was such a tight race out there and we finished in third place, but just barely by one point,” he noted. “It’s really nice to finally be back on stage at home, so I’m happy about that.” Curerri said it was a battle after 15 races in three days. “This is a great class,” he said. “I would only want to be in this class. You could get first in a class with five other boats after four or five races, but 15 races, you battle hard for what you got so I’ll take it.”
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